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Bulletstorm Dev: "We Don't Really Care About Graphics"

Bulletstorm looks like oodles and oodles of gory, ceaseless fun and the visuals certainly appear slick if not downright amazing.

But perhaps it doesn't really matter. People Can Fly founder Adrian Chmielarz said cutting-edge visuals aren't really high on his priority list; in speaking to CVG, he said the team really doesn't "care that much" about the game's graphics. He cites Gears of War by saying the "density of the detail...kills Modern Warfare easily." But at the same time, Infinity Ward's shooter ran at 60 frames per second. So what do gamers really care about? What is most important to them? Said Chmielarz:

"I think right now so long as the game has a minimum level of quality, which is for us and everyone who wants to matter in this business is really high, do players really care? Seriously, if it really looks good, do we need to join race? If people say our game looks better than another game, we will be happy, but that's not our goal. We just want to invite you on an adventure."

We've got no problem whatsoever with that philosophy. We do, however, have to say that any visual depiction has an impact on the experience. Graphics aren't everything; they're not even the most important aspect of a game (gameplay, duh) but superb visuals that add to the immersion and authenticity of an interactive experience should be appreciated. Either way, we think we'll have plenty of fun with Bulletstorm.

Comments (48 posts)

Off Topic: Scare, thought I should let you know that I replied to your comment you made in the "ESA: Gaming Needs Its Own Public Top 10 For Consumers", thought you may want a read if you haven't already done so...

Hmm, that statement worries me... it doesn't set a good precedence... hence I will be investing in Killzone 3 rather... sry BulletStorm... I don't like to know you have made the best of effort for my dollar!

Ok, I will try it. I did watch the play through videos and the dude commenting on the game during gameplay actually said they were very proud of the large and beautifully detailed vistas they had created...

If he was so proud of the vistas, why then are they saying graphics are not that important?

Although what I've seen of Bulletstorm so far, it does look good, I still have to disagree with his consensus on not caring about them.

In this day & age of more powerful consoles, there should be no reason for any developer to give us graphics that look closer to last gen than this one.

And for me, ho-hum graphics do take away from my overall enjoyment of a game. (case in point, all those $10retail Spec-Op series during the PS1's heyday).

And then there's the added fact that the developers should not only continue to hone their craft to the very best of their abilities, they should also be worried about their game's review score being knocked down a few pegs if the game looks like they've taken too many graphical liberties or short-cuts on them.Last edited by BikerSaint on 7/2/2010 10:46:55 PM

i dont like the idea of targeting the minimum quality for any game. if they're not making a game to be the best it can be then i dont know if i want this game. i might keep an eye on it but if theres a better ps3 game around its a pass.

also i can see that statement as minimum quality = what the 360 can handle. given that its a multiplatform game, i'm not sure. dont really pay attention to it.

MS has given devs no incentive to innovate or strive for the best. I think MS wants the industry to be this way. They don't want Sony or Nintendo showing them up because when they do, they tower over MS. Sony and a lot of Nintendo exclusives > just about any MS exclusive in my opinion.

Shooting stuff is getting old. At least make them as pretty as you can to keep my attention.

ps3 is finally back to 100%, took me about 3 days. 2 and a half days of backing up, restoring, and deleting files. half a day reinstaling games. i started with a 166gb backup file and ended up with a 6gb backup file that finally worked. i thought ps3 backup was supposed to be easy.

You got it, Ben! I don't think pretty levels and high detail sustain much value when story and gameplay suffer immensely to poor development. I'll take my opinion a step further with this philosophy.

Look at what we're constantly begging for. There are many games that have an absolutely incredible gaming formula, but have aged very poorly. FFVII, for example, is almost unbearable to look at because of the phase 3D gaming was in back then. It has an INCREDIBLE storyline, gameplay was that bad ass old school turn-based RPG, the world was interactive (kind of.. but well done for its day!) and the characters moved you. The graphics, however, are now very blockish. Although it was great back then, today it hurts the games submersively incredible qualities.

This is obviously an extreme and uncomparable example when it comes to comparing modern games amongst each other, but it's nonetheless an example of how much emphasis graphics have on gameplay.

Fast foward to modern games. You have great graphics across the board, amazing cut scenes, but many games suffer in storyline. Many games suffer when it comes to charactor to player connection. I honestly can't say many games made me feel bad for a character as FFVII did with Tifa. HR comes to mind as one of the few exceptions. With all the interactions, all the emphasis on being a true identity, you really feel emotionally attached to good-willed decisions and storyline shockers.

That said, judging by screenshots, I wouldn't have thought graphics weren't important had he not said that! hahaha!Last edited by DemonNeno on 7/2/2010 11:50:34 PM

Bulletstorm looks awesome to me. Killzone 3 honestly didnt impress me..dont get me wrong i love killzone but ya haha. Bulletstorm just looks plain fun i could care less about the graphics in that game.

the game looks great to me already, im sure it won't disappoint in the graphics department. I think some of us may have been spoiled by the exclusives we get that when a multiconsole game comes along we can be really harsh judges.

Not every game can be the next best thing in graphical fidelity. Nothing wrong with wanting a great looking game and for it to be the best it can be but i feel like some gamers miss out when they narrow their games down to just great looking exclusives.

I'm sure some people passed up on Dead Space amongst other multiconsole games due to this very reason alone, in the process missing out one of the better games released this gen, and it wasn't bad looking to boot.

Unreal Engine has produced some good looking games this gen and some horrible ones too. But it seems like when ever Epic is using their engine for themselves the results are always better than some games out. It doesn't look better than UC2 by a long shot imo, but that doesn't make Gears 1,2 ugly by any means. honestly, i think if Gears were on the ps3, id would get more love than it gets now

I'm sure some of the hate the unreal engine gathers is because of the wide spread use of the engine, resulting in some mediocre results from some devs because it wasn't utilized to the best of its abilities and because of the problems some devs had when a ps3 game used the engine. This is why i said it seems whenever Epic is involved, they make it shine, cuz Unreal Tournament on the ps3 was the better version.

All that said, this guy in the article could have worded that statement betterLast edited by aaronisbla on 7/3/2010 2:26:39 AM

C'mon, enough with the unreal engine. It sucks, its outdated, and why the hell does everything look like plastic. I just think it's just a really ugly engine. I have to admit though, it worked pretty well with Mass Effect 1&2 cause of ya know that si-fi look, it's pretty cool all shiny and plasticy look, but thats it.

Saying that they don't really care about graphics is ok-ish (obviously they're showing that by using unreal) but i did pay $500 bucks for the new tech and better graphics so i would kinda expect that they would use that tech. I certainly agree to focus on game play, but you have to realize that graphics is part of it.

Well, kinda, not completely. If you ever find yourself playing an unreal game, look real closely, it seems to start looking like pixelated plastic. Iv'e never really seen a game that looks as plasticy as a game using unreal.Last edited by Him on 7/3/2010 3:51:42 AM

Unreal looks very plasticy and most games made with the engine perform poorly. Problems range from texture loading, to popin, to a ton of screen tearing. There's only a few games it was used well in. Majority of the product made with Unreal looks poopy. Its just a poor and over used graphics engine.

Very ugly to look at In my opinion.Last edited by Jawknee on 7/3/2010 10:47:47 AM

so thats why there using a ancient history of a game engine?come on, seriously UE3 was a fantastic engine.FOUR BLOODY YEARS AGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!come on guys its time to move on, leave the wounded carcass to bleed out and use some new tech!

anyone noticed 99.999999% of the time a developer creates their own engine the game turns out to be fantastic?not always, i mean batman AA was using the EU3.5 and thats a fantastic game!but most of the time.its because creating your own engine is a sh*t load of work, and it shows a developers commitment to their game.normally if you create your own engine it means yur committed to your game and you really care about it.no wonder 99.9999999999% of the games that suck used the UE3 engine, because its quick and easy.no effort required, everything a lazy developer is looking for!

i wish selling game engines was illegal, make it that if you want to make a game you have to make it from scratch!that way developers would think twice before releasing crap, because if they do theres a multi million dollar engine they just wasted!

another thing they should do, this ones a little tricky and well can easily be corrupted but.they should set up a body like the ratings board, to play through a game and determine the value of the game.that way they can play through games and say nope this game sucks you can only charge 20 bucks for it.also make sure the developers add enough content in there to warrant a full release.if this was in place than shitty games like guitar hero would of been DLC like they should of been, not full 120 dollar retail games!

50 bucks says if that was the case games like AvP, rouge warrior, the avatar would of been delayed to fix them.funny, its too hard and too expensive to fix the game, but when the sales price is effected its magically made easier!sound familiar $E?

I have to completely disagree with this guys statement and yet at the same time agree with Ben.

When I put a game into any console I own, I of course notice the graphics. To me they are not the important thing, in fact they are pretty low on the list. My first play through of ff7 was only 4 years ago. The thing is, is that when they made ff7, they made every part of it as good as they possibly could. So the graphics look bad compared to heavy rain, but its a different world and I wouldn't expect an old game to look new.

However, when a company goes into making a game, not caring about the graphics is a bad attitude. Not caring about any part of the game is just plain poor workmanship. If you're making a video game, I would expect you to make it the best that you can. If the game came out and had sub-par graphics, but they did the best with what they had, then that's ok.

If you have any portion of your games quality lessened tho, because you simply felt it wasn't important, that's just poor workmanship and you've lost my respect.

So graphics aren't the most important thing to me, but a dev unwilling to give their all to their game, is a dev I don't want to invest in.

Picking a game is like picking a woman for me. I'd much rather get with a hotter (better graphics) girl. But if she's too much of a bi*** or a bad person (gameplay) i wouldn't want to. But there is a point with both girls and games that if the graphics are bad enough, i won't go near them.

off topic
@______, i want to thank you for suggesting FEAR 1, and 2 to me. and i pick up FEAR Project origns my self. althrough i got stuck buying it for the 360 it is the scaries francise (sorry bad spelling) i played since Dead Space can't wait for F3AR. thanks again

no problem glad to hear you liked it.if you have not played, and have a wii dead space extraction is a really good game.otherwise wait till dead space 2 is out it comes with extraction remade for the ps3.also bioshock 1 and 2.

i started playing singularity today, im only 20 minutes in so its hard to judge it yet but so far im really enjoying it.its quite a spooky game, not scary but creates a good suspenseful atmosphere.the story is really interesting to, its set in the 60s where the soviet union found E96 and use it to create time rifts.really sucks you into the story from the get go!

i cant wait for F.E.A.R 3, they have hired one of the worlds most famous horror writers to do the story so it should be good!its going to be interesting to see how playing as paxton fettel is going to change the gameplay.Last edited by ___________ on 7/3/2010 9:50:24 AM